U cracking the whip on straggling students. The problem is that the University of
Minnesota is a huge, impersonal beast that makes no allowances for someone who
comes to school unsure what they want to be when they grow up.

A dose of anthrax reality:
... assume you receive a letter in the mail with powder. It's almost
certainly a very unfunny hoax. All of the anthrax-laden letters so
far have been mailed to those in high-profile positions. No offense,
but you probably don't qualify.

House's shutdown hurts public trust. When the congress-critters appear cowardly,
they invite ridicule. Leno on the subject:
"Usually those guys only leave town when their interns test positive."
Wasn't this the same Congress that criticized Bush for not getting right back
to the White House on 9/11? At least they weren't making any more bad laws
while they fled town.

Mail Delivery Shows Limitations of Anthrax Attack. By mailing anthrax to news
agencies and legislators, the folks behind it got maximum bang for their minimal
buck. Remember that the whole point of terrorism is to create terror and the
sort of panic the House and Press seem to be showing.

Only a coward would want fewer good guys with guns on the streets.
The militia and the honorable hunting families of this great land have
always been best prepared for life's danger, now more than ever.
Self-sufficiency is not supposed to be a recreational consideration,
and woe to those who have embraced dependency because of its convenience.

Safe and Free in Times of Crisis is the ACLU's summary of the horrible bills
that have passed Congress. Ugh. Hopefully, phones will be lighting up with calls
from pissed-off constituents this morning, but I don't really expect people will
make a stink until it's too late.

David Grenier: Domestic Terrorist - this happened way back in August. Hopefully
the current mayor in Seattle will go down in flames for it, but probably not.
The Niemöller redux page has an update, as well as a fine re-interpretation
of that writing that ends and then they came for me.

Now I understand why we needed a standing army: to create the need for a
Department of Homeland Security. And deal with those pesky folks like David Grenier.
It's all part of Osama-gate. And if we're going to vigorously attack those
who support terrorism, when do the bombs start to fall on
Langley? Oh wait, they only support the
good terrorists.

Have you noticed that the masked figure in the CIA's Terrorist Busters Logo looks a lot
like the police in "dynamic entry" situations? Hmm!

8. October, 2001 - Let's talk bourbon - a good drink is useful in times of war:
permalink

One of the notable things about Bourbon is that it's got quite a lot of
maize in it (by definition, at least 51%) and is only single-distilled
(again, by definition). There are some brands that use Rye as well
(rather than wheat or barley), and there's the subgroup of rye-whiskey,
hard to come by outside the borders of the US of A. Rye has a very distinctive taste.
That aside, there's a pretty good bourbon primer at
http://www.smallbatch.com/SBBC/BourbonPrimer.asp.

Basil Hayden's :
This was my first introduction to small-batch bourbons. It's darned tasty, and as smooth
as some Irish whiskeys, in spite of Irish being triple-distilled, and Basil's only having
gone through the pipes a single time. This is prety heavy in rye (which I didn't know until
reading the web-page just now), which may explain why it's my favorite bourbon.

Baker's
An admirable second choice. It's got more bite than Basil's, but the character is all
bourbon. 107 proof. Wee-haw! It's actually pretty smooth, considering how strong
it is. One might be tempted to feed it to a young lady who has little experience in
bourbons. Well, if one were a complete cad. Oh wait. I am. And I have. Oops.

Booker's
The third of the three-B's. Another fine choice, and again, a distinctly American
flavor to it. Also not as smooth as Basil's, but the bite isn't a bad thing. The bite
is because it's 121 to 127 proof. It's hand-selected, and pretty darned tasty.
Booker's is surprisingly smooth for as strong as it is, though, which leads one back
to the cad comment....

Maker's Mark
is a newcomer, having only been distilled since 1953, it's Andy Rooney's favorite bourbon
-- I can't bring myself to argue with the old curmudgeon. It's my "on the cheap" bourbon,
even though it ends up being priced very similarly to Power's Irish (sigh). From their marketing:
The Maker's Mark mash substitutes wheat for rye, which gives the spirit a smoother,
cleaner finish. The bourbon is lush, rich and complex with the finish of good cognac.
There's actually not much there that I can argue with in that. It's darned good, and I
always have a tough time deciding between buying a bottle of Maker's Mark and a
bottle of Basil's.

Wild Turkey
Hunter S. Thompson's
old favorite. It's relatively clean-tasting, if a bit strong. A good
fallback in bars that don't have a real selection of bourbon.

Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey
It's not that smooth. It's not that tasty. It's got much of what some don't like in bourbon.
But it is damned popular. And it is the Reverend Jack. The Jack Rye is notable as
one of the first ryes I've tried, and still fairly good.

Finally, after all of that, you may want to look at some Alcohol Warnings. They're
helpful to remember.

New CDs designed to end 'ripping'. But they contain two broken versions of the music,
so it'll probably keep Windows users from complaining. And it was a smart move by
Microsoft to spend the past few years convincing record execs that WindowsMedia
is copy-proof.

Border Pilot is a collection of stories of a pilot flying crop-dusters in Texas near the
Mexican border in the 70s. I spent a few hours yesterday reading through it all,
and consider it time well spent.